Ashland Oregon Statistics

Did You Know?

Oregon has the highest percentage of children enrolled in kindergarten who have been exempted from receiving at least one vaccine, and Ashland, Oregon, has the highest rate of exemptions in the state.

For the 2015-16 school year, Oregon’s kindergarten students had a vaccine exemption rate of 6.2%. This is the highest in the U.S. Other states with high exemption rates include Idaho at 5.8 and Vermont at 5.5%. All these rates are now lower than they were in 2013. Several states have enacted tougher exemption laws in the last couple of years. Oregon was one such state.

The Ashland, Oregon, exemption rate of 25.4% (March 2016) is much higher than the state average.

We rank second in the country as the most unvaccinated city. Boulder, CO is the first.

Now some people may say it’s no big deal; there are still enough kids immunized to keep a vaccine preventable disease at bay. But remember, some children who are immunized will not develop immunity. That means our community immunity is even less than the numbers tell us. And what the numbers tell us isn’t good.

The graph below shows Ashland, Oregon, vaccine statistics—and how state wide exemption rates have increased over the last decade.

What does all this tell us? It means that as a community we are not protected against many vaccine preventable diseases.

To achieve herd immunity for pertussis and protect our children, 94% coverage is needed in a school. As you can see below, none of our schools have that level of coverage.

To protect our children against a measles outbreak, 93–95% coverage is needed. Measles is one of the most contagious diseases on earth and can cause children to become very sick.